Time Management Trouble

I have my first order for a tiered cake next saturday. I'm pretty nervous about it and want to make sure that I'm not finishing up at the very last second (this has been the case for the past 2 weekends, lol), leaving me pooped out and exhausted and most importantly, lucky that nothing went wrong! What are some things I can do during the week prior to decorating the day of? Can I bake it on Wednesday night and refrigerate, frost on thursday night and refrigerate again, lay the fondant on friday night and leave it out, then stack and decorate on Saturday morning? I would hate to try this and it fail miserably.

I would bake the cake in advance and freeze it. I freeze all my cakes and they turn out great. If you freeze it you can then bake it in as far advance as you like. After you pull it out of the freezer you can dam and fill the layers and crumb coat it while it's still frozen. I would put it in the fridge to let it settle overnight and then ice it on the Thursday or Friday night and lay the fondant on the Thursday or Friday night as well. Then stack and decorate it the next day. Freezing really helps me get things done in advance.

Hope that helps

P.S. Make sure you wrap the cakes in saran and a layer of tinfoil when you freeze it.

You can make the buttercream and color it in advance. If you need to make or color fondant that can be done in advance. Any flowers or decorations you can make in advance do. You can cover the cake board now as well.

What helps me the most is freezing (as mentioned) and covering in fondant 2 or 3 days before the cake is due. Then you have those last days just for decorating and there's hopefully less that can go wrong at the last minute too.